Specific Angular Momentum of Extrasolar Planetary Systems

TL;DR

This paper proposes using specific angular momentum as a metric to prioritize the observation of extrasolar planetary systems, revealing that high angular momentum systems likely contain undiscovered planets.

Contribution

It introduces a novel metric based on specific angular momentum to assess and prioritize planetary systems for further study.

Findings

Multi-planet systems have higher normalized angular momentum.

Low angular momentum single-planet systems are prime candidates for undiscovered planets.

Angular momentum varies over several orders of magnitude across systems.

Abstract

As the number of known planetary systems increases, the ability to follow-up and characterize the extent of any system becomes limited. This paper considers the use of specific angular momentum as a metric to prioritize future observations. We analyze 431 planets in 367 known extrasolar planetary systems from Butler et al. (2006) (including updates to their online catalog, current to April, 2011) and estimate each system's orbital angular momentum. The range of partition- ing of specific angular momentum in these systems is found to be large, spanning several orders of magnitude. The analysis shows that multi-planet systems tend to have the highest values of specific angular momentum normalized against the planetary masses. This suggests that in high angular momentum systems, the dominant contributors have already been discovered, and that single-planet sys- tems with low observed angular momentum may be the most likely candidates for additional undiscovered companions compared to their high angular momentum, single-planet counterparts. The multi-planet system, GJ 581, is considered as a historical case study to demonstrate the concept, examining how the specific angular momentum of the know planetary system evolved with each discovery.